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Vegan Quinoa Berry Veggie Salad

I’m trying this new diet where I eat one serving of quinoa everyday at anytime of the day either breakfast, snack, lunch, or dinner. Today, I made a quinoa salad, but mixed up the ingredients a little bit, and I have to say that this is now another one of my favorite dishes. It has a nice blend of vegetables, whole grains, MUFAs, and fruits, which made it sweet and tangy but not over-the-top. I think it’s a perfect salad for lunch or even to share as a side dish with someone else. And it’s easy to make and even full of antioxidants!

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The Recipe

Yields 1 Serving main dish or 2 Servings side dish

Serving Size: 1 salad bowl

1/2 cup cooked quinoa

2 tbsp seaweed, kelp

1 cup raw spinach

6 asparagus spears, sliced

5 cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced

1/4 avocado, diced

5 medium or large strawberries, diced

20 blueberries

1 tsp ginger root or ginger powder

1 tbsp of dressing (I used olive tapenade – you can replace this by using just plain black olives, olive oil, flaxseed oil, or another dressing of your choice like vinaigrette)

Salt as per needed (optional)

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Directions

1. Wash all the vegetables carefully. On the side, cook the quinoa with the seaweed inside just as you cook rice.

the quinoa cooked with seaweed inside my rice cookernote: this is six times the serving size of quinoa for the recipe since I cook my quinoa in bulk

2. Place the spinach and the asparagus in a saucepan and cook. I steamed them with water since I wanted to add olive tapenade to my salad, but you can sauté them if you wish with some olive oil or sesame oil. Add the ginger root/powder to the saucepan. You can add a little salt if your tastebuds need it.

cooking the spinach and asparagus in water

3. Set aside your avocado, strawberries, blueberries, and cherry or grape tomatoes. Take out your olive tapenade or the dressing of your choice – I used Trader Joe’s Olive Tapenade Spread which I love because it’s natural and not too oily, but gives a perfect, simple salad dressing! Feel free to use a vinaigrette or a simple oil dressing depending on your taste!

the salad toppings all ready

4. Once all the vegetables have been cooked, place the quinoa and seaweed first as the bed of your salad. Then layer with your vegetables, then the diced avocado, followed by the tomatoes, and finally topped with the fruit. Using a tablespoon, spread the olive tapenade over the salad. I used a plastic container to pack this lunch salad so I simply covered the container and shook the salad around to mix the ingredients together. If you are serving in a bowl, use utensils to spread the olive spread evenly over your salad!